Baltimore City Paper
Baltimore City Paper is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this
publication only count toward the Tomatometer when written by the following
Tomatometer-approved critic(s):
Blake DePastino, Gary Dowell, Keith Uhlich, Rachel Deahl, Serena Donadoni
Rating
Title/Year
Author
1
2
.5/5
Disaster Movie (2008)
Deflating these images only works when they've overstayed their welcome in the cultural landscape, and making fun of the rejects doesn't have the same punch.
Posted Jun 28, 2014
3
1.5/5
College (2008)
Deb Hagan takes an adolescent rite of passage and turns it into a primer on collegiate sadism, pushing the R rating to new raunchy lows in the process.
Posted Jun 28, 2014
4
It doesn't aspire to reinvent the crime flick, it merely delivers the genre. But, goddamn, does it deliver.
Posted Apr 1, 2010
5
The Illusionist (2006)
Unabashedly old-fashioned and fantastically pulpy.
Posted Jan 22, 2010
6
See No Evil (2006)
The dull and tedious splatter-fest See No Evil is, sadly, not even half as intriguing as its skuzzy pedigree.
Posted Jan 22, 2010
7
It's all a confection, but the plot is tight, Jolie is hot, and I'll probably see the next one, too.
Posted Jan 22, 2010
8
Invincible (2006)
9
Undiscovered (2005)
Undiscovered is a lifeless affair, as disinterested in its own characters as moviegoers are likely to be.
Posted Jan 22, 2010
10
Silent Hill (2006)
Visually arresting but only sporadically enthralling.
Posted Jan 22, 2010
11
4/4
Séraphine (2009)
12
The Dark Knight (2008)
13
Falling (2005)
Falling is a finely observed, idiosyncratic slice-of-life piece set to slow boil and captured in deadpan details.
Posted Apr 3, 2008
14
The Saragossa Manuscript (1965)
Yes, The Saragossa Manuscript is trippy as all get out, but that shorthand description falls woefully short of doing justice to an intensely hypnotic piece of work.
Posted Jan 8, 2008
15
Night Watch (2006)
If it all sounds silly, convoluted, and confusing, that's because it is silly, convoluted, and confusing. It's also a hell of a lot of fun.
Posted Jan 8, 2008
16
4.5/5
Juno (2007)
This poignant comedy, which tackles the touchy subject of teen pregnancy with a frankness that startles, owes the bulk of its triumph to the screenplay by Diablo Cody.
Posted Dec 20, 2007
17
1.5/5
Fred Claus (2007)
Fred Claus is the perfect example of how a great idea can be ruined by the most competent filmmakers.
Posted Nov 8, 2007
18
.5/5
Sleuth (2007)
Succeeds only as another example of why Law should never star in a remake of a Caine movie again.
Posted Nov 8, 2007
19
20
3.5/5
30 Days of Night (2007)
A gore-filled, cheer-inciting B-movie that re-imagines the vampire as something to be feared, not to sleep with.
Posted Oct 18, 2007
21
2/5
The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
The pacing is gruelingly slow, with too much attention paid to needless cinematic flourishes.
Posted Oct 18, 2007
22
4/5
Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
Director Craig Gillespie deserves praise for making such a silly premise so endearing, but Gosling, as always, is the real champ here.
Posted Oct 11, 2007
23
3/5
Shoot 'Em Up (2007)
24
1.5/5
3:10 to Yuma (2007)
A preposterous piece of soulless thievery that the understandably ignorant will enjoy.
Posted Sep 6, 2007
25
Rocket Science (2007)
While Hal's journey to maturation is torturous, lacerating, and endlessly unfruitful, hunkering down in the trenches of self-discovery with him is a joy.
Posted Aug 24, 2007
26
2/5
The Nanny Diaries (2007)
The Nanny Diaries is ultimately undone by an undeveloped lead character played by an equally underwhelming Scarlett Johansson.
Posted Aug 23, 2007
27
3.5/5
Sunshine (2007)
Director Danny Boyle avoids the clichés and instead embraces the sort of psychological drama and suspense that would've pleased Stanley Kubrick.
Posted Jul 26, 2007
28
3/5
Rescue Dawn (2007)
29
3/5
Shrek the Third (2007)
The most boring Shrek yet. That doesn't mean it's not entertaining; it's just disappointing when compared to its predecessors. Maybe in the next sequel, Shrek'll buy a minivan.
Posted May 17, 2007
30
2.5/5
28 Weeks Later... (2007)
The sequel is divorced from its source material and instead focuses on bigger scares, louder music and two kids (who are almost as annoying as the Jurassic Park duo).
Posted May 10, 2007
31
3/5
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
When compared to just about every other Marvel comic-book movie released in the past couple of years, it's a goddamn cinematic masterpiece.
Posted May 3, 2007
32
4/5
Grindhouse (2007)
Once you get past the absurdity of it all, what you get is a one-two punch of fun the likes of which rarely come out of Hollywood.
Posted Apr 5, 2007
33
4/5
The Host (2007)
34
4/5
300 (2007)
The exaggerated, stylized carnage takes on an almost Homeric beauty while still remaining in the historical ballpark.
Posted Mar 8, 2007
35
2/5
Catch and Release (2007)
Catch and Release opens with a funeral, which is a not-so-funny way for a romantic comedy trying to pass itself off as a drama to begin.
Posted Jan 25, 2007
36
2.5/5
As the body count of sexualized corpses increases Perfume starts to resemble an olfactory Peeping Tom minus the intellectual chops necessary to back up its atrocities.
Posted Jan 4, 2007
37
3/5
We Are Marshall (2006)
It doesn't really matter that you've seen variations of the story time and time again. What matters is, you're not going to have a terrible time.
Posted Dec 22, 2006
38
The History Boys (2006)
Unfortunately, the staid production never manages to justify the leap from stage to screen.
Posted Dec 21, 2006
39
2.5/4
Whereas Secretary didn't have to worry about truth, Fur never quite escapes it, nor embraces it.
Posted Dec 1, 2006
40
Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
[Screenwriter Zach Helm is] called by those in the know "the next Charlie Kaufman..."
Posted Nov 11, 2006
41
2/5
The Science of Sleep (2006)
A cloying confection of candied whimsy and exclusive self-referentiality.
Posted Sep 28, 2006
42
Accepted (2006)
Congenial, mildly anarchic, and generally inoffensive, Accepted feels like it's holding itself back, which also keeps it from being thoroughly engaging.
Posted Aug 17, 2006
43
The Descent (2006)
A number of narrative twists keep you guessing and, while the pace stays strong and steady, building the gory mayhem to a bloody crescendo.
Posted Aug 3, 2006
44
Why We Fight (2006)
If the inducement of despair and disgust is an indicator of artistic achievement, Why We Fight is incredibly successful.
Posted Jul 20, 2006
45
Freedomland (2006)
Freedomland is a drama that plays like an episode of a TV cop show stretched beyond its limits.
Posted May 25, 2006
46
Seabiscuit (2003)
So predictable that even this true story--the one so few people today know anything about -- seems like an accomplished fact before the opening credits are through.
Posted May 20, 2006
47
Sin City (2005)
Quite possibly the grittiest, muskiest, most blood-soaked, mind-roasting ball-busting thighmaster of a comic book you don't ever have to read.
Posted May 20, 2006
48
L'Enfant (2006)
If it's possible for cinema to be so invisible as to allow us to actually see inside characters -- to be, in short, literary -- this is it.
Posted May 18, 2006
49
Breakfast on Pluto (2005)
50
The War Within (2005)